Race report
NASCAR O'Reilly Phoenix
Sammy Smith hangs on for first NASCAR Xfinity win at Phoenix
Sammy Smith earned his first NASCAR national series victory in style Saturday, hanging on to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity race at Phoenix Raceway.
Jim Utter
Edited: Mar 12, 2023, 5:08 PM
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Smith, a two-time ARCA East series champion, held off an unexpected late charge from Ryan Truex and took the checkered flag by 0.641 seconds to earn his first Xfinity Series victory.
Smith, driving the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, grabbed the lead for the final time on Lap 149 after getting around veteran Kyle Busch.
Smith, 18, then had to hold off various challengers over three more restarts to cement the win. Smith led a race-high 92 laps. He had led a total of 32 laps in 12 previous starts.
“It’s amazing, just a dream come true,” said Smith, who is also finishing up his senior year in high school. “Thanks to all the guys on this JGR team for giving me this opportunity.
“It’s awesome!”
Truex, who is running a partial schedule for JGR in the No. 19 this season, said he was caught off guard by the changes in the track.
“In that long run, we were really bad and I was just hanging on,” Truex said. “But Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) and these guys let me complain on the radio and made the right adjustments and had a good restart at the end.”
Sheldon Creed rallied from a spin earlier in the race to finish third, Riley Herbst was fourth and Chandler Smith rounded out the top-five.
Completing the top-10 were John Hunter Nemechek, Austin Hill, Josh Berry, Busch and Daniel Hemric.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, a handful of cars including Justin Allgaier elected to pit but Hill remained on the track and inherited the lead.
The race returned to green on Lap 101 with Hill followed by Hemric and Sammy Smith. Allgaier lined up 30th.
Busch used a three-wide move on the restart to power into the lead.
Sammy Smith went to the inside Busch and came away with the lead on Lap 103.
By Lap 118, Allgaier had made his way into the Top 15 as Sammy Smith built a more than 2-second lead over Busch.
On Lap 139, Gray Gaulding hit the wall and came to a stop on the track which brought out the eighth caution of the race.
The lead-lap cars all pit with Hill the first off pit road. On the restart on Lap 148, Hill was followed by Busch, Sammy Smith, Nemechek and Herbst.
Just after Sammy Smith reclaimed the lead, Creed spun out in the middle of the field to put the race back under caution on Lap 150.
The race resumed on Lap 157 with Sammy Smith out front and followed by Busch, Hill, Nemechek and Allgaier.
Anthony Alfredo spun in Turn 2 on Lap 171 to bring out another caution. The race returned to green on Lap 177 with Sammy Smith still out front and followed by Nemechek and Busch.
Kaz Grala and Allgaier wrecked after contact from Brett Moffitt just past the start/finish line to bring out the 11th caution of the race.
Sammy Smith remained the leader on the restart with 15 laps to go. He was followed by Busch, Berry, Hill and Herbst.
With 10 laps to go, Sammy Smith remained out front but Truex had moved into second, less than a second behind the leader.
Stage 2
Allgaier held off Hill on fresher tires to take the Stage 2 win, the eighth time in his career he has swept both stage wins in a race.
Hemric was third, Sammy Smith fourth and Busch rounded out the top-five.
Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, most of the lead-lap cars pit but Sam Mayer was among those who stayed out and inherited the lead.
On the restart on Lap 56, Mayer was followed by Nemechek and Hill.
The race almost immediately was placed back under caution when Moffit spun around in Turn 4 after contact with Jeremy Clements. Nemechek was ruled the leader when the caution came out.
When the race resumed on Lap 63, Nemechek was followed by Mayer and Hill.
Connor Mosack spun and wrecked in Turn 2 on Lap 69 in an incident that also collected Josh Williams to bring out a caution.
The race returned to green on Lap 75 with Nemechek still in the lead.
Nemechek was black-flagged on the start for going below the yellow line before taking the flag and had to serve a pass-through penalty. The penalty handed the lead to Hill.
On Lap 84, Berry spun in Turn 2 after contact with Mayer to bring out the sixth caution of the race.
Most of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Hill first off pit road. Allgaier remained on the track and inherited the lead.
The race returned to green with two laps remaining in the stage.
Stage 1
Allgaier held off a late-charge from Creed in a two-lap shootout to claim the Stage 1 win.
Sammy Smith was third, Herbst was fourth and Hemric rounded out the top-five.
Cole Custer started on the pole and took command early, running out to a 2.6-second lead over Allgaier after 20 laps.
On Lap 29, NASCAR was forced to display a caution for debris in the dogleg area of the track, which appeared to be the rear bumper cover from the No. 45 car driven by Leland Honeyman.
Most of the lead-lap cars elected not to pit and Custer remained in the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 36.
Allgaier went to the outside of Custer on Lap 38 and claimed the lead and the race went back under caution on Lap 40 when Berry spun around in Turn 3.
Several lead-lap cars pit but Allgaier remained on the track and in the lead. On the restart on Lap 44, Allgaier led the way followed by Custer and Sammy Smith.
Busch had to start the race from the rear of the field as he did not take part in qualifying. His No. 10 Chevrolet had issues with its fuel pump.
Read Also:
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Laps Led 1 18 Sammy Smith Toyota 200 2:26'11.948 92 2 19 
Ryan Truex Toyota 200 2:26'12.589 0.641 0.641 3 2 Sheldon Creed Chevrolet 200 2:26'14.893 2.945 2.304 4 98 Riley Herbst Ford 200 2:26'15.050 3.102 0.157 5 16 Chandler Smith Chevrolet 200 2:26'15.251 3.303 0.201 2 6 20 John Hunter Nemechek Toyota 200 2:26'15.532 3.584 0.281 19 7 21 Austin Hill Chevrolet 200 2:26'16.875 4.927 1.343 22 8 8 Josh Berry Chevrolet 200 2:26'17.256 5.308 0.381 9 10 Kyle Busch Chevrolet 200 2:26'18.190 6.242 0.934 3 10 11 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 200 2:26'18.259 6.311 0.069 11 1 Sam Mayer Chevrolet 200 2:26'19.133 7.185 0.874 4 12 00 Cole Custer Ford 200 2:26'19.733 7.785 0.600 38 13 25 Brett Moffitt Ford 200 2:26'20.206 8.258 0.473 14 78 Anthony Alfredo Chevrolet 200 2:26'20.678 8.730 0.472 15 48 Parker Kligerman Chevrolet 200 2:26'20.693 8.745 0.015 16 39 Ryan Sieg Ford 200 2:26'21.632 9.684 0.939 17 02 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 200 2:26'22.163 10.215 0.531 18 31 Parker Retzlaff Chevrolet 200 2:26'22.315 10.367 0.152 19 43 Ryan Ellis Chevrolet 200 2:26'22.617 10.669 0.302 20 51 Jeremy Clements Chevrolet 200 2:26'22.691 10.743 0.074 21 92 Josh Williams Chevrolet 200 2:26'23.066 11.118 0.375 22 27 Jeb Burton Chevrolet 200 2:26'23.556 11.608 0.490 23 9 Brandon Jones Chevrolet 200 2:26'23.645 11.697 0.089 24 24 Connor Mosack Toyota 200 2:26'23.780 11.832 0.135 25 28 Kyle Sieg Ford 200 2:26'24.529 12.581 0.749 26 35 Joey Gase Toyota 200 2:26'25.011 13.063 0.482 27 45 Leland Honeyman Chevrolet 200 2:26'25.471 13.523 0.460 28 4 Bayley Currey Chevrolet 200 2:26'25.872 13.924 0.401 29 6 Brennan Poole Chevrolet 200 2:26'27.638 15.690 1.766 30 53 Emerlingб Patrick Chevrolet 200 2:26'28.432 16.484 0.794 31 38 Joe Jr. Ford 200 2:26'28.566 16.618 0.134 32 91 Garrett Smithley Chevrolet 200 2:26'28.643 16.695 0.077 33 44 Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 200 2:26'32.128 20.180 3.485 34 26 Kaz Grala Toyota 199 2:26'37.455 1 Lap 1 Lap 35 07 Blaine Perkins Chevrolet 192 2:22'41.377 8 Laps 7 Laps 36 7 Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 178 2:11'06.314 22 Laps 14 Laps 20 37 08 Gray Gaulding Ford 137 1:36'50.951 63 Laps 41 Laps 38 74 Dawson Cram Chevrolet 99 1:30'57.595 101 Laps 38 Laps
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